AMD Confirms 20nm in 2015, 16nm in 2016 Likely

Will we see AMD’s next-generation graphics cards arrive this year? If so, will they be based on the next-gen 20nm process shrink? Those are questions we’ve been pondering for a while now and if AMD’s most recent conference call for its Q2 financial performance is anything to go by then we now have a much better idea. During its conference call AMD’s Lisa Su, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, told listeners that “We (AMD) will be shipping products in 20 nanometre next year and as we move forward obviously a FinFET is also important”. Therefore we can strongly expect AMD’s 2015 releases to arrive with 20nm technology, but we should also expect anything released this year to still be 28nm in design. That’s not to say 28nm will be replaced as soon as 2014 is over, 28nm will likely continue in a lot of new 2015 products just because the 28nm process is mature, profitable and well-refined.

AMD’s CEO Rory Read has already commented on AMD’s potential transition to 20nm stating that AMD is waiting for the optimal crossover point between profitability, cost of the technology and cost of the product. With TSMC only properly gearing up 20nm production a few months ago it seems likely that the crossover point will not arrive until 2015.

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The article states that, “AMD is waiting for the optimal crossover point between profitability, cost of the technology and cost of the product,” but that doesn’t accurately represent the way their customers and fans feel these days. Many AMD supporters, the folks that buy their products–and not Intel’s–have reached a tipping point where they are moving away from AMD. This includes even dedicated and long time supporters.
They have shown so little forward progress in the last few years that it is becoming difficult for many, including myself, to keep buying AMD centric platforms(the competitions offerings are dropping in price, increasing in efficiency, and closing the gap, graphically. And it doesn’t seem like AMD is doing much of anything to address this issue.
Their slow transition to more efficient architecture almost feels like the last straw, and I think that this is compounded by the fact that they spun off their fabrication units, which is slowing their ability to adapt and compete.
Maybe they should have retained a stop gap solution to this issue, so that they could have retained greater control over these fabrication units and how often they update.
The reality is that I have a laptop purchased in 2011 that still performs on par with the one I purchased in 2014, and see no reason to upgrade my processor in my desktop anytime soon(purchased in 2012) because they have shown only incremental improvements, performance wise and energy consumption wise. Some of their newer products have even shown a reduction in per core performance over older product lines. That doesn’t bode well for the company, their lack of innovation is starting to greatly impact the need, and more importantly, the desire to update and upgrade.
AMD is almost non-existent in the mobile space, they are showing only small improvements in efficiency and performance, year over year, and their competition–both in CPU technology, and GPU products–is closing the gap with every passing season. Fans are furious and moving away in droves, and others, like myself, are considering the switch over to Intel for the fist time in a long time. I am the last in a long line of friends and colleagues that hasn’t already made that switch, and the internet, media, and the shelves of retailers nationwide, echo this experience.
Every year I see fewer and fewer AMD offerings.
Your discreet GPU’s are still great, but its fifty/fifty with Nvidia, because the performance/price/quality gap is always going back and forth. Although I have to say that the new CCC interface, and options is horrendous and feels simplistic and limiting compared to older ones. Your biggest concern should be the way Intel is closing the gap, because when they do, AMD will have finally lost on all fronts and it will be nearly impossible to retain a respectful market position, and retain any sort of respectable and dedicated fan base.
Pull your heads out of your behinds, get control over your company and product lines, show effort, show improvement, and work tooth and nail to rebuild your greatly deteriorated fan base; if you don’t, I fear that the future of AMD will continue to be a rocky and uncertain one.

AA

What you said is very true. Amd is becoming not relevant in the laptop market since its market share is like 5%?
It desktop gpu in 2015 however would be competitive since nvidia cannot move to 16nm with tsmc delay and amd would have 20nm gpu presumably for its top end cards. In laptop, Amd has improved substantially with each generation but the problem is intel is just way ahead in performance(cpu) that incremental improvements is enough for them leaving them with time to improve on its igp. Amd is closing the gap though and I expect carrizo to significantly close the gap in cpu performance for its mobile chips further more Hsa is the future of more efficient computing and is gaining traction amomg software developers albeit at a slow rate. AMD would not be dominant but it would increasingly be competitive as it diversify and improve on its product offerings